Essay Contribution by Edin Beslagic
April 30, 2007

"A Liver by Any Other Name"

To the modern human being, the liver is merely an organ. To us, in modern times, it has particular functions within certain parameters of the biological being that defines humanity. However; to the ancient people, the liver meant much more. Many ancient civilizations, including Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Judeo-Christians performed sacrifices and practiced rituals of magic (such as various forms of divination and exorcism). An exchange of rituals, ideas and cultural behavior took place throughout ancient civilizations and lasted until modern times. One of these rituals was hepatoscopy or, divination of future by examining a liver. It is important to examine just why livers were examined in order to predict future and furthermore what the liver meant to humanity since the birth of civilization.

Throughout both Mythology and history sacrifices were very important as they were believed to affect a deity. For example, in the oldest known epic, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and Gilgamesh kill the Bull of Heaven and sacrifice it to god Shamash by bleeding it and cutting out its heart. In variations of Homer’s Iliad, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia – in order to gain favorable winds for sacking of Troy. In early Judeo-Christian texts, authors viewed Jesus Christ as sacrificing himself to God. Therefore, sacrifice is a well established ritual of atonement and propitiation of our civilization.

In hepatoscopy, a creature is first sacrificed and then its liver is examined. We have much evidence that this form of divination was practiced by ancient civilizations; for example, there are many cuneiform texts from the Ancient Near East explaining its function and containing interpretation of particular livers. One of those texts is a set of tablets from the 14th century BCE written by diviners to the king Burnaburiash II in which livers are examined and verified by priests in order to accurately predict the future. Out of the Greco-Roman world, over two dozen Athenian pottery wares survive to this day containing hepatoscopy scenes and are dated from the 6th century BCE. Similarly, a headless bronze statuette of a young boy from the Roman (Etruscan) origin survives to be evidence of the liver fascination. The young boy can be construed as Apollo, a symbol of clairvoyance as he is holding a liver in his hand.

Apollo was thought of Ancient Greeks as all-knowing, all-seeing. He is associated with the Sun; however, unlike Helios he is not responsible for mechanics of the Sun. Rather, his association stands with “light,” or rather the ability to see in absence of darkness. This makes “light” an interesting association with precognition – but why does Apollo hold a liver in his hand? Taking an evolutionary step back, in ancient Mesopotamia, diseases and illnesses were thought to be work of demons and were supposed to be treated by priests. When a person fell ill, one type of diviner was sent out to diagnose the ailment (identify the demon responsible) but another type of diviner would treat the illness – this diviner would sacrifice himself by absorbing the illness. It just happens that the treatment for nyctalopia (night blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency) consists of consuming a liver (because livers are saturated with vitamin A). Therefore, an interesting association could be made between liver and darkness – and sacrifice. Coincidentally, the ancient Babylonians were certainly aware of the illness and knew how to treat it – but simply could not explain it in scientific terms.

They could, on the other hand, prove that by use of a liver a patient could regain vision; they knew that through magic rituals the liver could cure illnesses. Thus the liver became a tool of precognitive divination – it enabled priests to conjure visions of the future by making a sacrifice. Ancient Mesopotamians took this practice very seriously. For example, kings would instruct their diviners to perform hepatoscopy before major decisions were made. In one such instance, the Cassite king Burnaburiash II was warned that gods “will be [sic] transported,” and thus he commanded diviners to re-examine a liver in order to be certain of its omen.

During this time, Mesopotamian cities were centered around ziggurats (stepped-pyramid-like temples). On top of these temples a statue of a deity was located which represented the city. Everything in life revolved around the temple and the god; for instance, business transactions were specifically conducted in name of these gods. Correspondence between cities was addressed to deities. During periods of unrest, invaders would fight defenders until their god statue was captured and transported out of the city – thus the good king of Babylon took this warning very seriously. Further interpretation of the liver confirmed his fears – conditions of the liver were reported along with their meanings. In this case, several diviners noted that the liver was not clean, the left side indicated a weapon, and that its right side was oriented downward. Their interpretation suggested a possible invasion (in their defense, the Cassite kings were later expelled from Babylon by Assyrians.)

Therefore, circumstantial, literary and archeological evidence supports a charter theory of hepatoscopy’s origin: the ritual of treating night blindness with a liver was explained by associating the liver with seeing the future. Liver, consequently, was associated with light, darkness (absence of light), and knowledge. As the civilization slowly migrated northward through the Fertile Crescent into Ionia and Greece, so did ideas and rituals. Some time later, the Greeks would adopt Eastern ideas, gods and written alphabet. One of the more famous Greek myths involves the figure of Prometheus. For providing knowledge to mankind (fire - light) he was punished by having his liver pecked by an eagle in the deep, dark underworld.

Some scholars believe that Prometheus’s liver is a metaphorical representation of darkness while the eagle is the sun which consumes it daily. This contrasting relationship between light-dark and knowledge-ignorance is seen throughout mythology. Like Mesopotamians, Ancient Greeks often performed hepatoscopy before major decisions were made. One of those famous decisions was the battle of Marathon – where Greeks pushed invading Persian forces and surprisingly, defeated them despite being severely outnumbered (the sacrificed creature must have told a good tale).

It is quite possible that the Greeks imported the Mesopotamian charter ritual into their daily lives without understanding why it was being performed; in fact, there is little evidence that they full-heartedly engaged in hepatoscopy. According to the “ritual theory”, the Greeks explained their behavior by creating myths to support them, reversing the chicken-egg relationship of hepatoscopy and divination. In ritual theory, myths are invented to explain long-forgotten reasons for performing rituals and ceremonies. This trend would not be unusual in the least bit as Greeks imported other ideas from rest of the world (for example, the Phoenician Alphabet).

Further down the timeline, Judeo-Christian mythology would embrace slightly altered sacrificial elements of hepatoscopy. In the sense of sacrifice being a gift to a god, Jesus Christ (all-knowing) is considered to have purposely sacrificed himself to absorb sins of others; during the crucifixion, he was stabbed in the liver and later on he was resurrected. Much like a Mesopotamian priest, his sacrifice was meant to cure others. Much like Prometheus, whose liver was constantly being regenerated, there is a startling resemblance to the biological reproduction of humans: even though individuals die their genetic material continues on. As Christianity developed, it absorbed and changed pagan rituals, ceremonies, mythologies and viewpoints. In hepatoscopy, livers would often be burned after examination – given to gods for their consumption as thanks for their favorable grace. Similarly, early Christian rites were literally called “thanksgivings.”

Mythological evidence tells us today that the liver was a very important symbol of light and knowledge for our ancestors. Throughout the development of our civilization, the direct representation of the liver shifted around; however, its sacrificial meaning remained. Throughout the evolution of civilizations, the liver (and hepatoscopy) acted as glue between progressive stages but each time a sacrifice was made in order to gain knowledge and good. Priests sacrificed themselves in order to cure illnesses; diviners sacrificed animals to see the future; Prometheus sacrificed himself (at cost of his liver) in order for humans to have knowledge and Jesus Christ is thought to have sacrificed himself to absolve believers of their sins.

We are now capable of understanding medical causes and effects and can no longer directly associate the liver with vision (as our medicine has identified vitamin deficiencies for various ailments) but we still popularly associate light with knowledge. It is not always possible to trace development of ideas while rituals and ceremonies manage to outlive knowledge of their meanings; hepatoscopy did not survive in its original incarnation; however, sacrifice as a ritual has survived for well over six thousand years.

Bibliography

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Lutz, H. F. “A Cassite Liver-Omen Text.” Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 38 (1918): 77-96.

Osborne, Robin. “Why did Athenian pots appeal to the Etruscans?” World Archeology, Vol. 33, No. 2, Archeology and Aesthetics (October 2001): 277-295.

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